October 2

DEFEND THE REALM.  Dead Drop's long reach has turned up an interesting tidbit from the mother country, the fabled Cambridge University to be specific. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) demonstrated some exemplary "outreach" — that's intel-speak for seeking the wisdom of academic and other experts — on the world's toughest problems. The DIA, which runs a joint analytic center at RAF Molesworth in the UK, put together a two-day unclassified conference with a host of academic and retired government experts assembled by Cambridge on issues ranging from Russia, to the Middle East and Iran. The idea was to see what could be learned from history that might enable understanding of the future — now there's a novel notion.  Today’s generals were probably lieutenants when the Cold War ended.  Now that the Russian bear is awake, not a bad idea to think through the lessons of the past.  The idea behind the event originally came from LTG Michael Flynn, a big outreach proponent, who retired as DIA Director about a year ago.  Helping put the conference together was a former head of Britain's spy agency, MI-6, who must remain nameless. We’re told this chap has held a post at Cambridge for several years, however. Among the blokes participating was Professor Christopher Andrew, noted intelligence historian and author of the authorized history of MI5.

ELITE PREPARATION. We’re told that things got a little crazy after hours in Jersey City this week.  Apparently, Law Enforcement Officers strapped on tactical gear and played out an active shooter scenario, using City Hall as a ground zero training platform.  A Dead Drop source tells us that it was a uniquely blended, elite team of first responders and former special operators that worked police, fire and emergency responders through the scenario of an armed shooter moving through the building. Coincidentally, former NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was in California this week reminding attendees at a security conference how important it is to actually exercise incident response plans.  His advice:  If you take a look at your emergency response plan and it includes the names of people who don’t work there anymore, that’s probably a good indicator that it should be updated.  Coincidentally too, Cipher Brief CEO Suzanne Kelly heard from Rear Admiral Kevin Lunday during NGA’s Georgetown Kalaris Conference last week that one of the biggest lessons that came out of a classified Cyber Command tabletop exercise this past June was that those kinds of exercises need to be carried out much more often in order to be relevant and most effective.  Seems like rather good advice all around.